Health Watch: Linking energy drinks to high-risk behavior

Weekly health rail, with items on energy drinks and students' bad behavior, obesity surgery without an incision and more.

A researcher at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions has been investigating links between energy drinks and risky behaviors.

Frequent energy drink consumers (six or more days a month), according to the findings of scientist Kathleen E. Miller, Ph.D., were approximately three times as likely as less-frequent energy drink consumers or non-consumers to have smoked cigarettes, abused prescription drugs and been in a serious physical fight in the year prior to the survey.

They reported drinking alcohol, having alcohol-related problems and using marijuana about twice as often as non-consumers. They were also more likely to engage in other forms of risk-taking, including unsafe sex, not using a seatbelt, participating in an extreme sport and doing something dangerous on a dare.

A total of 795 Western New York male and female undergraduate students participated in the study. -- University at Buffalo

Incision-free obesity procedure performed

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have performed the first non-surgical procedure in the United States that restricts the size of the stomach to treat obesity.

The investigational procedure was performed with specialized instruments passed into the stomach through the mouth. The first U.S. patient received the treatment July 23 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

The procedure was performed as part of a study evaluating an incision-free procedure using the TOGA System. Like surgery to treat obesity, the TOGA procedure is designed to alter a patient's anatomy to give a feeling of fullness after a small meal.

In the TOGA procedure, the physician introduces a set of flexible stapling devices through the mouth into the stomach, and then uses the staplers to create a restrictive pouch. It is not yet approved by the FDA -- Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Health Tip

Olympic athletes aren't the only ones who need to be concerned about the heavily polluted air in Beijing. The dirty air may trigger serious cardiovascular problems for some spectators.

Visitors to China can lower their risk at the Olympics:

- Men older than 40 should take an aspirin each day to prevent their blood from becoming thick and sticky. While the benefits of aspirin are less certain for women, it wouldn't hurt for them to take one, too.

- On the plane, especially the return flight, frequently walk up and down the aisles and do leg exercises in your seat to prevent blood from pooling in the legs and clots from forming. – Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Number to Know: 25.6

An estimated 25.6 percent of U.S. adults reported being obese in 2007, compared to 23.9 percent in 2005, an increase of 1.7 percent. – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Children’s Health

More than one new mom has felt frustrated or helpless over diaper rash. Here are a few tips on dealing with it:

DO realize it's not your fault. Many causes lead to diaper rash. Rare indeed is the baby who will make it out of diapers without ever experiencing some diaper rash, no matter how vigilant the parents are.

DON'T wait to deal with a bad diaper rash. Typically, diaper rash will clear up in three days or fewer with over-the-counter treatments. But if the rash lasts more than 72 hours, you should take your baby to your health-care provider because it's possible the rash is accompanied by a yeast infection.

DO learn the difference. Typical diaper rash develops as mild redness with well-defined edges between affected and healthy skin. A diaper rash complicated by Candida will usually have a "beefy" red appearance, smaller rashes outside the edges of the affected area, bumps with or without pus, and will last longer than three days.

DO consult your health-care provider at the first sign of a bad diaper rash. Standard over-the-counter diaper rash treatments may not cure a rash with a yeast infection; an antifungal treatment may be necessary. Your health care provider is best qualified to diagnose your baby's severe diaper rash and tell you whether a yeast infection is present. -- ARAcontent

Senior Health

Patients with early Alzheimer's disease who exercised regularly saw less deterioration in the areas of the brain that control memory, according to a recent study.

Magnetic resonance imaging studies showed that exercise positively affected the hippocampus region of patients' brains, an area that is important for memory and balance. In Alzheimer's, the hippocampus is one of the first parts of the brain to suffer damage.

The researchers found that patients with early Alzheimer's had a "significant relationship" between the size of key brain areas associated with memory and fitness, unlike healthy older adults. Those patients with better fitness ratings had less brain tissue atrophy and those with worse fitness had more brain damage. -- University of Kansas Medical Center

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